Heavy durable goods such as garden tractors, riding lawn mowers, refrigerators, and other such products have long been packaged in a variety of types of containers for storage and shipping. Often these containers include a pallet that supports the goods in the container. The containers are then enclosed, such as by cleated crates or corrugated paperboard bodies. U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,256 describes a container having a pallet that receives a corrugated paperboard body to enclose the durable good on the pallet. Containers of this type are particularly useful for packaging riding lawn mowers. The lawn mower sits on a wood pallet that receives a wood-cleated corrugated paperboard body and a wood top frame. The container is closed with flaps, and the body is secured to the pallet with staples. Prior to positioning the corrugated paperboard body, the tractor is secured to the pallet. Securing the tractor permits the container to be handled, for example, by forklifts, platten trucks, and hand-operated lifts, as well as moved in trucks from manufacturers to retail distribution centers.
Various mechanisms have been provided for securing the heavy durable goods to the pallet. For example, some refrigerators have support members in the bottom of the refrigerator. The support members have threaded bores which typically receive castors or rollers for ordinary use. For shipping purposes, however, the bores receive threaded bolts which pass through the pallet into the base of the refrigerator for securing the refrigerator to the pallet. Installing bolts from below a pallet into the refrigerator is difficult and special handling is required.
For riding lawn mowers, elongate flexible straps are often used to secure the lawn mower to the pallet. Wheel wells defined in the pallet receive the wheels of the garden tractor to help prevent it from rolling.
While such mechanisms are gainfully used for securing the heavy durable good to the pallet, there are drawbacks to their use. Straps, which are typically used, are cumbersome to install and remove. The straps can be cut, but for metal banding, cutting leaves sharp-edged ends. Also the straps tend to spring away forcibly when cut, which can cause injury.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved device to hold durable goods to pallets in containers for shipping, storage, and handling. It is to such that the present invention is directed.